I am a Baptist minister and I have been
interested in the relation between religion and democracy since I was a
teenager. That was when I discovered that reputable historians believe that the
principle separating church and state codified in the First Amendment of our
Constitution is Baptists greatest contribution to the history of western
civilization.

That probably surprises you. During most of
your lifetimes you have heard voices on radio and television telling you over
and over again that the idea of separating church and state was a communist
invention and that America was a Christian nation until 1962 when some liberal,
secular humanist judges on the Supreme Court kicked God out of the public
schools. Most of the voices saying such things call themselves Baptist and most
of the people listening to them call themselves Baptist.

But, for someone who knows Church history, Baptist history
and American Colonial history, it is obvious that Baptists today are just
repeating the mistakes that the other Christians made two-hundred to
five-hundred years ago -- and they are taking our nation along for the ride.
It’s a ride that almost everyone except conservative, “born again,” evangelical
Christians will find bumpy. In fact, many moderately progressive, “born again,”
evangelical Christians like myself are increasingly becoming alarmed at what we
perceive as the reckless way that conservative Christians, often led by
Baptists, are steering the ship of state. They seem to be steering our ship of
state to the dry dock of Christendom. By Christendom I mean the union of church
and state.

Church and state have been united throughout most
Christian history. Such unions have proven to be more than dry docks, they have
been trails of blood. Much of the blood that was spilt was Baptist blood, but
that was when we were a minority faith. When Baptists were in the minority we
took the Golden Rule seriously and were consistent about wanting to see liberty
of conscience for people of all faiths and of no faith. Long before religious
wars prompted the philosophers of the enlightenment to call for religious
tolerance, Baptists were appealing for liberty of conscience. Listen to what
they said:

In 1525 Balthasar Hubmaier, a German Anabaptist, wrote one
of the first pamphlets calling for religious liberty – a pamphlet called
Concerning Heretics and Those Who Burn Them in which he said, “No one may injure the atheist who wishes nothing for
himself other than to forsake the gospel.”[1]
His opinions were so radical that he was burned at the stake.

Around 1615 Thomas Helwys, the first pastor of the first
Baptist church in England, died in prison for writing a book and sending a copy
of it to King James. He wrote:

Men’s religion to God is between God and themselves;
the king shall not answer for it, neither may the king judge between God and
man. Let them be heretics, Turks, Jews or whatever, it appertains not to the
earthly power to punish them in the least measure.[2]

In 1631 Roger Williams immigrated to America searching for
liberty of conscience only to be banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for
saying things like, “No persons, papists, Jews,
Turks, or Indians, [should] be disturbed at their worship . . . Also, that
immunity and freedom from tax and toll may be granted unto the people of such
and such religions.”[3]

Williams went on to start the first Baptist church in
America, to found the colony of Rhode Island, and to secure the first charter in
the world that established “a free, full, and absolute liberty of conscience”
for all citizens.

The Baptist struggle for liberty of conscience literally
continued all the way to the eve of the revolutionary war. By then Baptists
were in all of the colonies and were welcome in none except Rhode Island.
Particularly unwelcome were their refusals to pay taxes to support the state
churches saying, “It is not the PENCE but the power that alarms us.”[4]
It was the power to tax to support churches that alarmed them. Baptists
insisted that churches should only be supported by the voluntary contributions
of their own members.

Colonial governments flogged, fined, imprisoned and
confiscated Baptist’s property until the need to enlist soldiers to fight the
British outweighed the need to collect taxes for religion. Baptists joined the
War for Independence as part of their fight for liberty of conscience. When
the war was over they refused to ratify the Constitution until the First
Amendment was added to assure that church and state would be separate. As John
Leland, the leader of Virginia Baptists, explained to George Washington in a
letter:

When the Constitution first made its appearance in
Virginia, we, as a society, had unusual strugglings of mind, fearing that
liberty of conscience, dearer to us than property or life, was not sufficiently
secured. Perhaps our jealousies were heightened by the usage we received in
Virginia under regal government, when mobs, fines, bonds and prisons were our
frequent repast.[5]

After the constitution and the first amendment were
adopted and Christians of other denominations were denouncing it as a ‘Godless
Constitution,’ that same John Leland, leader of the Virginia Baptists, publicly
rejoiced that our constitution made it possible for “a Pagan, Turk, Jew or
Christian” to be eligible to serve in any post of the government.[6]

The early Baptists really did take the Golden Rule
seriously and they were consistent about wanting to see liberty of conscience
for people of all faiths and of no faith. Being in the minority themselves,
they understood that, in the final analysis, the first amendment protects
minorities from the tyranny of the majority in matters of conscience.
Unfortunately, now that Baptists are in the majority, we have forgotten our
history and heritage.

Every morning when I wake up I pray that God will help
Baptists to remember our heritage before we add our name firmly to the long list
of groups that have exercised the power of the state to persecute religious
minorities. Then I go to work to remind them of their legacy.